This isn't a story about a CVO bike or CVO rider, but I thought many of you would appreciate this story and accompanying video. It's about my brother and what his wife did to memorialize him. In order to watch the video at the end, you will have to cut and paste the url into your browser. Hope you enjoy it. John
A motorcycle memorial
Man’s ashes painted onto Harley
By Mike Moore
Journal Times
Saturday, November 15, 2008 3:36 AM CST
Although Jeff Vlieger agonizes over each of his projects, the Caledonia man had a bigger incentive to get this one right.
Sandy Berken-Ottery of Muskego heard from another of his customers that he paints designs on motorcycles, and she asked him to do one on her 1990 Harley-Davidson Softail. Oh, and could he incorporate her late husband’s cremated ashes into it?
Vlieger took on the unusual memorial. The motorcycle’s gas tanks now feature a train, with ashes forming the image of smoke billowing from the engine. On the bike’s back fender, more ashes form a written tribute to three friends who have helped keep the motorcycle running.
“It kind of creeped me out at first,” Vlieger said. “After a while, I got used to it, I guess.”
George Ottery Jr. repaired rail cars for the Chicago & North Western Railroad, and most called him “Railroad George.” An abbreviated version of that nickname appears on the train design. So does his face, poking out the engineer’s window.
He died in 2000 from lingering problems attributed to Agent Orange, an herbicide the U.S. dropped in Vietnam, where he served, Berken-Ottery said. His ashes were buried next to his grandfather, but she decided to keep a few aside for her own tribute.
At one point, she had a plan to ride to the Mississippi River and spread them there.
“It just didn’t seem like the right thing to do,” she said.
Finally, the idea of painting the bike came to her. The couple bought the Harley with a severance package Ottery got from the railroad when it shifted operations elsewhere. They flipped the bike’s odometer at least once, traveling around the state.
Berken-Ottery had always ridden as a passenger, but after her husband died she made a point to learn to ride it. She never thought of selling the Harley, not after that much history.
“If there’s one place I’m the most relaxed, it’s on that bike,” she said.
The paint job took Vlieger a month of spare time. He showed it off this week at a friend’s auto body shop in Sturtevant, where the guys chided him for being such a perfectionist.
“I’m not on a meter. It’s done when it’s done,” he said. “There’s the little boy in me. I love to hear the oohs and aahs.”
Vlieger has done all sorts of artistic work on all sorts of surfaces. He painted a mural at Spokes Restaurant and Bar in Yorkville. This was a whole new entry in his portfolio.
Some people he knows say it’s gross. Others think it’s a touching gesture.
Soon the motorcycle will be put back together. To Berken-Ottery, this finally feels like the right tribute after eight years.
“It’s 500 times better than anything I imagined,” she said.
She took home a small bag of ashes that were left over. Let the planning begin for the next project.
VIDEO: See what one of the Harley tanks looks like
(cut and paste the below link into your browser)
http://journaltimes.videos.vmixcore.com/p/video?id=2393239Copyright © 2008 -